Nuggets forward Will Barton controls the ball against Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen during a game on March 30. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)

It’s NBA awards season, and the Nuggets have a few players that will figure into to the mix in a couple of the categories. Here, we take a look at those categories going into Thursday night’s games, and examine the Nuggets’ player — or players — chances of winning.

Sixth Man Award
Nuggets Candidate: Will Barton

Barton’s breakout season will most certainly land him among the top vote getters for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. If the Nuggets were in the playoffs or even closer to playoff contention, there would be little debate: Barton would likely win it. He’s flat-out been the best sixth man in the league this season. But the Nuggets aren’t in the race any longer, and there are other notable performances around the league that will muddy the waters.

Oklahoma City’s Enes Kanter, for instance, is in the top 10 in the NBA in PER, which is remarkable for an individual averaging just 20 minutes per game. Barton’s best case? He’s got the highest points per game average, second-highest rebounding averages, and highest 3-point percentage of any of the most viable candidates. And he’s come off the bench to lead the Nuggets or tie for the team lead in scoring 19 times this season. He’s in the top 12 in the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring.

Barton will figure into this category as well, though not as prominently as he will in the Sixth Man Award. And for all of the same reasons as above. If this were limited to just a team award, the Nuggets might give their most improved to Gary Harris, who has been solid and has seen big gains on both sides of the court. His points per game are up almost 9.0 per night, and his rebounds and assists have all increased year over year. He’s also the Nuggets most consistent shooter, leading all of the team’s perimeter players in field goal percentage while also knocking down 35.1 percent from the 3-point line. But this is a league-wide award, and the field is stacked.

Few awards will be harder to hand out than the all-rookie team due to the fact that there were a ton of impactful rookies league-wide. A ton. It will be challenging to settle on five, although three seem pretty locked in — Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis and probably Jalil Okafor. After that? This is where Nuggets rookies Nikola Jokic and Emmanuel Mudiay come into the mix.

Let’s start with Jokic. Though there will be more pieces written nationally about how nobody knows him, the fact of the matter is he’s a well-known commodity now. And advanced analytics not only show that he’s had an unexpectedly solid season, they show, in some ways, he could be a real contender for Rookie of the Year. He won’t win that; Towns will. But Jokic, who is second only to Towns in PER among rookies, could bump Okafor off that first line. Sophisticated voters will do it. Others will point to the raw stats, which is fine, too, because Okafor racked up big-time numbers. But they don’t tell the entire story of production and impact within the parameters of a given opportunity.

Mudiay’s road to first-team status got harder as the season wore on, mainly because of Devin Booker’s rise in Phoenix. Booker didn’t start the season with any kind of meaningful playing time, but injuries pushed him in the lineup and now he’s got the most 30-point games any rookie has had in a season (6) since Blake Griffin did with the Clippers (11) in 2010-11. Then there is Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell. No, we’re not worried about team squabbles over videos, we’re only worried about his play. He’s fifth among rookies in scoring and second to Booker in scoring among rookie guards. Mudiay, meanwhile, leads all rookies in assists and he’s fifth among rookies in steals.

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